A.J. Burnett Injury: Pirates Pitcher Has Surgery On Eye Orbital

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A.J. Burnett Injury: Pirates Righthander Could Miss 8-10 Weeks

If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.

-- Albert King, Born Under a Bad Sign

This could be the Pittsburgh Pirates’ slogan, if they wanted to be ironic. Just when they thought they might have added a mid-range starter to their rotation at a reasonable price, A.J. Burnett bunted a ball off his eye socket during practice earlier this week, which necessitated surgery.

We now have an estimate of Burnett's absence:

The good news on AJ Burnett is no longterm damage, but it likely is an 8-10 week process before he starts

— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) March 2, 2012

It’s not clear if "he starts" means starting to get back into pitching condition, or starting regular-season games for the Pirates. Even if it’s the latter, that puts his return to the mound sometime in early- or mid-May.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is less definitive:

No information was given regarding the severity of the fracture, the nature of the surgery or the estimated recovery time.

If it wasn’t for bad luck, etc.